Category: PR

Long-term readers of my PR blog will know that I have been seeking to improve CIPR provision for independent practitioners since 2014 when I chaired a CIPR roundtable of independent PR practitioners (aka freelance PRs, or solo PRs) at the institute’s Russell Square HQ. Once elected to the CIPR’s Council, I began to agitate about how the …

An enforced stopover called by British Airways overselling its flight led to a hellish night at a Heathrow hotel. I was due to fly to Singapore with British Airways on the evening of Friday 6 October, for the Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure conference (an event I’ve participated in since 2013 – though these were …

By combining construction-specific communication expertise, strong industry leadership, and a clear vision of the future, we can tackle structural issues in ‘the industry currently known as construction’ that perpetuate its poor image. This post was stimulated by two things – a discussion about construction-specific communication skills, and a conversation about the need for strong leadership …

Crewe Alexandra belatedly tried to change its communication strategy, but its continued reticence regarding the football sexual abuse scandal attracts attention for the wrong reasons. This week marks four weeks since former Crewe Alexandra defender Andy Woodward first went public with his allegations of sexual abuse by Barry Bennell, and set in motion a scandal …

The English football sexual abuse scandal is being extensively covered in newspapers and on TV and radio. It is also being captured in Wikipedia articles; articles about organisations or individuals involved are being widely read. Wikipedia statistics can help indicate interest in a subject, but care is needed in editing articles relating to an ongoing …

Football supporters have a deep emotional bond with their clubs, whatever their faults, but loyalty can be seriously tested if the club appears uncaring or unwilling to comment on a looming crisis. As many friends know, I am a football fan, a follower of one of English football’s perennial under-achievers: Crewe Alexandra F.C. I have …

Not exacty nuisance calls, but frequent, disruptive calls of a wrong number are challenging my patience – and NHS patients! I work mainly from a home office in southeast London and use a telephone number that we have had for over 20 years. Over the past couple of years, I have started to receive a growing …

We need to tackle some of the fundamental issues in the UK construction industry before we can effectively change “the image of construction”. “The image of construction” has featured heavily this week for me. On Tuesday, I attended a CIMCIG-led roundtable discussion in London with Mark Farmer, the consultant helping the Government’s Construction Leadership Council …

For a long time there has been some overlap, and a productive relationship, between two UK construction communication groups: CIMCIG, the construction interest group of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and CAPSIG, the construction and property special interest group (which I chair) of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Members of one are often eligible …

Sometime earlier this month, I passed a Wikipedia milestone of sorts: I submitted my 20,000th edit. I started editing the English Wikipedia 12 years, four months and 16 days ago (there is a handy counter on my user page that tells me this). As I noted on my 10th anniversary, my first edit was a …